a picture from your sister
by Lint
Summary: It happened again, didn't it?


Alex lays the photograph on the table as if it were a winning hand at poker. Her practiced look of disappointment, with arms folded, and expectant eyes. Kara tries not to react at all, but her hands can't help but clench, so she quickly pulls them away and hides them in her lap.

Her lips part to give some kind of explanation, but no words form on the tip of her tongue, mouth left hanging open until she snaps it shut and looks away.

"Are you spying on me now?" She asks.

"Her actually," Alex admits. "But this, this was a surprise."

Kara is quick to scowl, wondering what business the DEO could possibly have for spying on Lena. It's her mother who is the xenophobic zealot, and doesn't turning her over to the authorities count for anything?

"She's done nothing wrong," Kara insists.

Alex's arms are still folded, discouragement tilting her head at Kara's naivety.

"She's still a Luthor."

"That's hardly a reason!" Kara snaps. "It's ridiculous and unfair and-"

"Kara-"

"No! Someone's name is no reason for suspicion, and she's done nothing but help me, help us, since she came to National City. She is not her mother. Or her brother. How many times does she have to ask not to be judge because of her family?"

"Kara-"

"Alex, she's not like them. Not by her upbringing. Not by blood."

"Kara!" Alex shouts, finally cutting off her sister's stream of defense. "L-Corp has kryptonite."

"What?"

"We've been trying to locate a cache of ore found in Paraguay, J'onn made a promise to your cousin to keep track of any new discoveries, and the trail of radiation we followed led us back here. Straight to one of L-Corp's laboratories."

Kara is stung speechless, but her denial remains insistent. Lena wouldn't.

"It's not her."

"How do you know that?" Alex shoots back.

"Because I know her."

"You know her so well because you kissed her?"

Kara's mouth drops, words frozen again, and all she can think to do is glare as hard as she can without heat vision leaping from her eyes.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Alex asks.

Kara's eyes dart to the picture. She and Lena on the balcony of her office, arms not even embracing each other, the kiss so shy and sweet it should be obvious to anyone witnessing the act that it was the first time.

"Maybe I wanted to keep it to myself for five minutes," Kara answers.

"This was taken two days ago."

"Metaphorical minutes."

"Do you like her?"

"Of course I do."

"Like that?" Alex continues, tapping the picture for emphasis.

"I don't know," Kara sighs. "Maybe?"

Alex's face softens a little.

"When you met Maggie, you didn't know right away. You just had this feeling, that something good could come out of it, right?"

"It was a bit more complicated than that," Alex responds.

"But you felt something. Even if you didn't know what it was."

"Yes."

"Well I feel something," Kara confesses. "And I don't know what it is. What you're accusing her of, I know she's not behind it. Don't ask me how, I just do. She's trying to change the company, but that doesn't mean there aren't people working there who still buy into the Lex Luthor method of mad science."

Alex doesn't look convinced.

"Let me talk to her. She'll help us, I know it."

Still not convinced.

"Alex please."

"Fine," she concedes. "But if she doesn't, we're going in hard."

"She will," Kara assures, backing away and heading for the exit.

"Kara!" Alex calls, waving the picture lithely between her fingers. "We're going to talk about this some more."

Kara nods a reply, before turning and speeding out of view.

Alex looks at the photo again, sighs, and slips it into her pocket.

/\/\/\

"It happened again, didn't it?"

There's been a gleam in Kara's eye all day, constantly checking her phone, and breaking into a smile every single time she looks. It doesn't take much of an intuitive leap to figure out who's on the other end, bringing out this strange adolescent giggle that Alex is damn sure she's never heard her sister make.

"What happened again?" Kara asks, still distracted by the phone in her hand .

"You and Lena," Alex goes on, so very tempted to snatch said phone from Kara's grasp.

That garners a bit of attention Alex's way, Kara's eyes darting to meet hers, then back to the phone which she finally sets down. No deer in the headlights look this time, though Alex does feel a little guilty that one little question can sour Kara's mood so quickly, but they were supposed to continue a conversation and it has yet to happen.

"Is that a problem?" Kara asks. "Because I thought her confiscating the kryptonite, firing the employee responsible, and turning him over to the proper authorities would have earned her a few brownie points at least."

Alex shakes her head. "She's not the issue."

Kara looks shocked.

"What did I do?"

"No!" Alex retracts. "That's not-I mean." She sighs. "We tell each other everything, don't we? And you're keeping, whatever is going on between the two of you, so close to the chest. I don't mean to sound like I'm interrogating you, but I just want to know what's happening."

"Oh."

"You look happy," she continues. "I'm glad for that, believe me."

Kara adjusts her glasses, but Alex knows a delay tactic when she sees one.

"It might have," she begins. "I mean, yes, we did kiss again."

Alex nods with the confirmation. "Where?"

"On her desk."

"Okay whoa," Alex cries, throwing up her hands. "Not that kind of-I just meant-this is not how I imagined this conversation going."

Bringing a hand to her face, she can see Kara's cheeks flush red through the split of her fingers, and takes a deep breath before trying once again.

"Are you and Lena dating?"

"We haven't really discussed it."

"Is there a reason you're keeping me in the dark on this?"

Kara's shoulders sag the slightest bit, chin dropping to her chest, as she plays with her glasses unnecessarily for the second time.

"Maybe I was afraid you were going to think I was stealing your thunder."

This time Alex looks shocked.

"My thunder?" she asks, incredulous.

"Your gay thunder?"

Alex bursts out laughing, unable to help it, only sobering to the fact that Kara isn't laughing with her and might have just let something very serious slip through.

"Kara," she begins in all sincerity. "Are you gay?"

Kara's hands go for her glasses a third time, but Alex intercepts, pulling them into her own and holding firm.

"When I'm with her it's so easy," Kara confesses. "It's like, I know what we're supposed to be. And it's great, she's so, I mean she's really-"

Tears well in her eyes, but she does not let them fall by sheer determination.

"But when I'm alone, when I'm really honest with myself, I don't think I am. Not all the way. But I want to be with her, Alex. So much. I haven't felt like this since, I don't think I've ever felt like this."

The tears do fall.

"Can I… Can I just be both?"

Alex pulls her into a hug, squeezing tight with reassurance, hands lifting to smooth out her hair.

"Of course," she encourages. "Of course you can."

/\/\/\

Alex watches in amusement as Kara zooms around her apartment, in every literal connotation of the phrase, doing last minute tidy ups before Lena arrives. Funny enough that the speed in which she moves ends up making more of a mess than not, and once Kara realizes this, comes to a halt in the middle of her apartment and looks around helplessly.

"She's been here before, hasn't she?" Alex asks.

"Yeah, but that was just kind of casual, you know? Stopping by for a visit. But this..."

"This?"

"Well, she's meeting you."

"We've already met."

"Yeah, as the girl who saved her life. My sister. But now she's meeting you-"

"As your girlfriend?"

The smile on Kara's face is automatic at the title, color flushing into her cheeks, as she sways awkwardly in place.

"I'm making too big of a deal about this, aren't I?"

Alex holds up her thumb and index finger. "Just a little." She approaches Kara still standing in the middle of the living room, places reassuring hands upon her shoulders, and turns her slightly so they're eye to eye.

"Everything is going to be fine," she says with confidence.

"You think so?"

"It's just dinner," Alex continues. "We'll make small talk, drink some wine, tear into that cheesecake from Andronico's I saw in the fridge."

Kara takes a deep breath, Alex brushes some hair out of her eyes.

"You must be really happy," she offers.

Kara's head tilts, curious.

"What makes you say that?"

"Because," Alex starts with a grin. "You wouldn't be going this crazy if you weren't."

/\

Dinner goes surprisingly well, Lena having brought Italian from a little place downtown, which Kara informs in a stage whisper that Mario Batali owns and whom Lena just happens to know. Wine is poured, conversation is had, much to the surprise of Alex that Lena can carry on about bio-engineering as well as some of her colleges at the DEO. Kara zones out once or twice during the discussion, listening on with feigned interest, chin resting idle in her hand.

Though Alex's defenses are always up, Lena's charming smile and steely resolve make headway in getting them to lower, if only for Kara's sake. It helps even more so, when her napkin fell to the floor and upon retrieving it, caught site of Lena reaching for Kara's hand under the table.

Later in the evening, when they're all properly tipsy having polished off a third bottle, Kara and Lena sit next to each other on the sofa while Alex is off to the side in the chair. A movie they all quietly agreed on, but only half pay attention to, plays on the TV.

Alex's phone buzzes gently in her pocket, she checks it to see that Maggie has finally gotten off shift, and is about the make her goodbyes and call a cab when she sees Kara's head fall to Lena's shoulder from the corner of her eye.

She manages to snap a picture without either of them noticing, but makes a mental note to send it to Kara later, not quite wanting to spoil their moment just yet.


End file.
